Updated 11:16 pm, Tuesday, August 20, 2013

NEWTOWN -- Lori Hoagland returned from a 17-day trip to Turkey early July 29, landing at JFK Airport in New York City expecting to be greeted in the terminal by her husband, Robert, only to find he had either forgotten or been delayed.

She called him numerous times and texted him, but got no answer.

At first, she said, she was not too worried. She figured he was busy and simply had a mix-up about her itinerary. Once home, though, the culinary teacher at Newtown High School started to become more frantic.

Robert Hoagland, 50, had not shown up for his job at a Bridgeport law firm.

Lori Hoagland's Mini Cooper, the car he'd been driving, was at their Glen Road home. So were his cellphone, his wallet and even the shoes he usually wore, she said.

He was nowhere to be found.

From the police investigation and conversations with 23-year-old Max, one of their three children, Hoagland was able to ascertain her husband stopped at the Mobil gas station on Church Hill Road about 6:45 a.m. July 28 .

He bought bagels that he took home for breakfast with Max, then played three games of computer Scrabble before heading outside between 10 and 11 a.m. to mow the lawn.

A neighbor stopped by with a new puppy and saw Hoagland stop the mower to speak to Max, who left shortly thereafter in another family car, a Volkswagen Golf.

From there, the trail grows cold.

Police confirmed Monday they are investigating this as a missing person's case, but have been able to gather no information on Robert Hoagland's whereabouts. The last known sighting was at the Mobil station, where a surveillance camera shows a smiling Hoagland approaching the counter.

He is described as a white male, about 6 feet tall and 175 pounds, last seen wearing khaki shorts and a white T-shirt.

About her husband's state of mind, Lori Hoagland said the couple emailed regularly while she was out of the country, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She said she knew her husband had worries about some private family matters, but nothing that would lead her to suspect he might disappear.

"He was a man doing ordinary life things on a Sunday, preparing for his wife to come home," Lori Hoagland said Tuesday, noting she spoke to him two days before her return.

"And he disappeared. ... It's a total, total mystery.''

Lori Hoagland said she and their friends are desperate to hear from her husband or anyone who might know of his whereabouts.

"It's very, very uncomfortable to not know what has happened to him,'' Hoagland said. "We just don't know.''

Anyone with information is asked to call police detectives at 203-426-5841.